Save Article

In Sierra Leone, the U.N.
Had No Peace to Keep

Updated May 8, 2000 1:59 a.m. ET

By David Rieff. Mr. Rieff is completing a book on humanitarian aid.

T here's a lesson in the killing of four United Nations peacekeepers, the kidnapping of dozens of others and the disappearance of hundreds more in Sierra Leone: The U.N. is neither competent enough, nor realistic enough, nor well enough led to cope with any serious challenge to its authority.